Our Autumn Fire

Thirteen

    The air in the large office was cold with the air conditioning turned on high. Wesley pulled his cardigan on tighter and waited for the principal to finish reading the investigations report on the harassment that Wesley had been suffering. The principal was a potbellied, balding man whose remaining hair had long ago turned completely white. He was fiddling with the long sleeve of his tweed suit while catching up on the details of all the incidents - the last of which had been almost two weeks ago.

    Wesley waited patiently for his boss to finish and was just glad that the pranks and teasing whispers had come to a stop. The rumors of his alleged homosexuality had taken the school by storm, but they had quickly become old news like the crocs that Wesley still considered wearing from time to time.

    “No incidents since last Tuesday?” Principal Edward Warner finally spoke up.

    Wesley cleared his throat and answered, “No. None since then.”

    “And the frequency before then was quite high…” He muttered to himself more than he engaged Wesley in the conversation.

    Wesley was not sure if he was meant to respond, so he just kept quiet in his seat. Principal Warner had been the Vice Principal during Wesley’s time at Wildwood and had specialized in the proper disciplining of the students through a strict enforcement of the rules and a glare that could make you wet your pants even if you had just come from the restroom. His demeanor has softened since then, and the extra weight he had put on took away any intimidating factors he had left; however, Wesley had never quite outgrown the emotional trauma he received from the man in his younger days.

    “High frequency before then?” Edward repeated his question.

    “Oh, uh, yeah. I mean, yes. It was almost a prank per day or more, but nothing since last Tuesday.”

    The principal did not remove his eyes from the report until he had finished going through it thoroughly at least twice. “This is very serious, very serious. We can’t have our school be blasted across the news for homophobia right after having our second Pride Parade.” He sighed.

    Wesley quietly muttered a “yeah” because he was again unsure if he should say anything.

    “Bolt tells me that he’s been unable to find a culprit to take ownership of the pranks.”

    Wesley hated talking to Edward because he would never know when it was appropriate to speak. “Yeah, Vice Principal Whitman said he caught a couple kids whispering rumors about who had done it, but he couldn’t get anything else out of them.”

    Edward sighed again. “I’ve already spent too much of our overtime budget trying to figure out who did these things.” He looked up at Wesley, who gave off an expression that displayed exactly how unsure he was of what to do or say at that moment. “I’m going to stop investing so many of our resources on trying to find the kids responsible.”

    “Oh.”

    Edward continued before Wesley could get a chance to object or say anything at all. “The incidents have stopped, and I think most of them have been forgotten by the majority of the student body. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think it’s best for everyone involved if we move on.”

    Wesley opened his mouth to ask whether that would send the best message to the students, but he could not find the words to express his thoughts.

    “It seems that that phase has passed, anyways. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about anyone giving you grief over your life choices.” He smiled kindly at the quiet English teacher. “In fact, I think it’s great that you serve as a source of inspiration for some of them.”